Saturday, March 14th, 2015

The Lady in Black has been described by those who have had rare personal audiences with her as personable, even friendly. She has always given fair hearings to those who have managed to attract her attention, and doled out terrifying punishments to those found wanting. But the specter of enduring a lifetime of agony over seven days of the breaking wheel is not the reason few seek her out.

Rather, it is the Lady’s retinue, the Faceless Six.

She is never without the Faceless, at least not that any have ever seen. Even when a supplicant is able to meet with her, she is always surrounded by the Six, and the Six are always closer than she. Their features are concealed behind featureless black masks, broken only by a pair of black lenses like two pools of inky liquid. They wear robes and hoods, gloves and boots, so that not an inch of their true skin can be seen, and they kill any who approach too close to their Lady.

The robes conceal, for each of the Six, a set of short blades that are used to ward off interlopers with a slash and end them with a stab. Lest you think, as many have, that this makes them weak to a canny sniper, this is not the case. They will form a testudo about the Lady if confronted by arrow or shot, faster than the eye can see, and they will respond with repeating rifles hidden beneath their vestments. No one has ever witnessed a shot that has harmed one of the Faceless Six, but their aim is unerring in returning fire, and later examination of the bodies they leave in their wake never reveals a projectile.

Myriad are the theories and speculations behind the Faceless Six, how they came to serve the Lady, and what truly lurks beneath their masks:
The Hostage – The Lady in Black is at the mercy by the Faceless Six, who control access to her and therefore control the city. But why, then, do they never speak?

The Figurehead – The Faceless Six are the true rulers, and the Lady in Black is but a figurehead for their depredations. But why, then, do they not dispense with her altogether? She has no more claim to rule than they.

The Divided – The Faceless Six and the Lady in Black are all aspects of a single being, one that divided itself to better lead and to survive should one of its parts be harmed or destroyed. But why, then, are six of the parts outwardly identical? No other divided being is such.

The Foil – The Lady’s kindness is an act, and she uses the Faceless Six as enforcers to allow her reputation to remain untainted by the steel that must be drawn to remain in power. But why, then, are the Six never seen alone or apart from her?

In general, though, the citizens under the Lady’s control espouse one theory above all others:

Don’t Ask – The Lady’s reasons are her own, and anyone who pries too deeply into her affairs, or those of the Faceless Six, is apt to find the seven of them waiting when they return home. Those who emerge from such a meeting with only a death sentence on the breaking wheel are the lucky ones.